Headlines June 13, 2023 from Democracy Now!

Former President Donald Trump is surrendering to federal authorities in Miami, Florida, today to face charges for retaining and mishandling classified documents, including top-secret information about U.S. nuclear weapons programs. In recent days, Trump and many of his supporters have condemned the charges using inflammatory language. Ahead of Trump’s arraignment, Miami Police Chief Manny Morales said law enforcement officials are preparing for the possibility of violence by far-right extremists outside Miami’s federal courthouse.

Police Chief Manny Morales: “Make no mistake about it: We’re taking this — this event, extremely serious. We know that there is a potential of things taking a turn for the worse. But that’s not the Miami way.”

Trump, who’s currently the front-runner for the Republican Party’s 2024 presidential nomination, is planning to fly to his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, after his arraignment to deliver remarks this evening. After headlines, we’ll have the latest on the federal indictment against Trump; we’ll speak with Ruth Ben-Ghiat, expert on fascism and authoritarianism.

The world’s nuclear powers spent nearly $44 billion on weapons of mass destruction last year — or more than $157,000 per minute — with the United States accounting for more nuclear weapons spending than all other nations combined. That’s the finding of a new report by the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons. The Nobel Peace Prize-winning group found worldwide spending on nuclear weapons rose last year for the third consecutive year.

Iran’s supreme leader has said he’s open to reviving the landmark 2015 Iran nuclear deal, which the U.S. unilaterally withdrew from under President Trump in 2018. On Sunday, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said there was “nothing wrong” with pursuing a revival of the agreement, as long as Iran can keep its nuclear infrastructure intact. Khamenei spoke after touring an exhibition of Iran’s nuclear industry in Tehran.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei: “Based upon Islamic ideals, we do not want nuclear weapons. But if this wasn’t the case, they would not be able to prevent us from doing so, just like they could not prevent our nuclear progress so far.”

Human rights groups warn Iran is executing prisoners at its fastest pace in nearly a decade. Over the weekend, at least five prisoners were hanged in Iran. This follows 282 executions carried out through May, nearly double the number recorded during the same time last year. The use of capital punishment in Iran has surged in the months after historic massive protests took to the streets following the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in police custody last September.

Montana Court Hears Landmark Youth Climate Lawsuit

Jun 13, 2023

Image Credit: Our Children’s Trust

 

In Montana, a landmark climate trial led by 16 children and young adults began Monday in the capital Helena. The lawsuit, which is the first of its kind to go to trial in the U.S., was filed in 2020 by plaintiffs between the ages of 5 and 22. They accuse the state of Montana of violating their constitutional rights as it pushed pro-fossil fuel policies that devastated the environment and severely impacted their health. This is Julia Olson, executive director of Our Children’s Trust, the nonprofit law firm representing the young plaintiffs.

Julia Olson: “Children need lawyers, and they need advocates, because our system of law does not prioritize the needs of the youngest among us. And when it comes to climate crisis, human laws are not paying attention to the laws of nature and what scientists say is necessary to protect our children and all future generations.”

Earlier this month, a judge cleared the way for a children’s climate case against the United States government to begin in a federal court in Oregon, after Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts blocked the lawsuit in 2018.

UNESCO says the United States will rejoin the United Nations’ cultural and scientific agency and will pay more than $600 million in back dues. In 2017, the Trump administration announced it would withdraw the U.S. from UNESCO, citing what it called “anti-Israel bias.” Israel followed suit immediately after. Both the U.S. and Israel stopped paying member dues in 2011 after Palestine joined UNESCO.

In climate news, tens of thousands of dead fish have washed ashore across multiple beaches along the Texas Gulf Coast after they were starved of oxygen due to abnormally warm ocean temperatures. In 2019, the U.N. warned the climate crisis will increasingly lead to massive die-offs of marine life, as warm water holds far less oxygen than colder water.

This comes as more than 430 wildfires continue to burn across Canada, with thousands of people in Alberta, British Columbia and Quebec still under evacuation orders. Quebec’s minister of public security said the blazes will likely last all summer, with more air quality alerts likely across the northern U.S. and Canada.

Last Wednesday, as thick, dark smoke from Canada’s fires blanketed New York City, over 300 people were seen at hospitals due to symptoms of asthma — nearly double the number seen the day before the smoke arrived. The highest rate of emergencies were reported in predominantly low-income, Black and Latinx neighborhoods.

JPMorgan Chase has agreed to pay $290 million to settle a lawsuit brought by survivors of convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein who say the bank ignored warnings about Epstein’s abuses for years because he was bringing in wealthy clients. JPMorgan Chase still faces a separate lawsuit brought by the U.S. Virgin Islands, where the Attorney General’s Office said in a statement it will proceed with its enforcement action to “prevent the bank from assisting and profiting from human trafficking in the future.”